Joining the Empire
by KatrinaLinden
Summary: Trouble brews where the void hangs in the air, it corrupts weak minds and destroys weak alliances. When two worlds collide, can one girl stop the destruction of both? Can she survive, or will others push her away, and fail the task?
1. Whiteness

I stared outside, reluctant as anything to go out. It was _freezing. _A heavy cloud layer lay upon the town, fog so thick I couldn't even see across the road. Scowling, I threw my bag over my shoulders and walked to the bus stop, where my best friend Sunny waited.

"Nice weather, hey." I commented, sitting next to her.

"Least it's not raining, she muttered in reply

"Don't jinx it."

Sunny smiled and began telling me of this epic castle she made on Minecraft yesterday. Sunny and I are both obsessed with Minecraft. Personally, I couldn't think of a better game. Sunny loved making the most amazing creative structures, or messing around with mods.

I, on the other hand, loved multiplayer. Joking around with other players, working together, sometimes fighting against each other. My favorite server was Empire Minecraft, which I play pretty much every day.

As we discussed our favorite blocky game, the bus stop slowly filled. Right next to me sat a middle-aged man with pitch-black hair. He seemed to ignore me as much as the others, but every time I mentioned Minecraft, he looked at me quickly. It was weird, but not overly weird, perhaps he played it too. Ignoring him, I climbed onto the bus when it came and sat in an empty seat, where Sunny began quizzing me on an upcoming test. The black haired man sat himself opposite me, and began to ignore me just like before. I did the same.

"Hey! Alyssa! Stop drifting off and look!" I turned my head around. For Sunny to bother using my full name, it had to be mega. My eyes didn't get to what she was pointing out.

The man was staring at me intently, his eyes a snow-white, seemingly glowing, the white seeping around the bus. I tried to yell out, to run, but I couldn't move. The white glow bound itself around me, and suddenly I couldn't see. Everything was white. _Too bright! _I tried to yell, but the words stopped in my throat. I couldn't move, couldn't hear, smell, feel anything. I tried to scream, but failed once more. Terrified, I could do nothing but wait.

* * *

Grass under me. Dull popping somewhere close by. _Why is that sound so familiar? _I wondered. Something important struggled to be known, but I ignored it. I was so _tired. _I just wanted to sleep, rest on this soft grass forever. I didn't open my eyes, what if the white light came back.

And then I remembered.

My eyes flew open.

I could see! Move! I wanted to cry out in jubilation, but I had a question to ask first. _Where was I?_

Cautiously I stood up, looking around. My heart stopped. About five paces before me was a small pool of bright red liquid. Lava. To my left loomed a massive castle, made of grey bricks. Ringing the castle, I knew, was a kind of dull-brown mud, grotesque faces covering it and strange mushroom-like plants growing on top. Without having to look any further I knew where I was. I knew exactly what was inside the castle, withought having to look through the windows. I knew, but I didn't believe.

Somehow, impossibly, I was in Minecraft. My home on Empire Minecraft, to be exact. But how the _hell _did I get here?

I decided to look around me. But obviously, as I was in Minecraft, I'd need to take precautions. I squinted upwards. Instead of the usual dawn, it was now past midday. The sun didn't move. _Perhaps it passes like it does in real life_. Shaking my head, I rounded the castle, and went to the entrance. I'd thought having a nether portal as an entrance was a good idea, that didn't mean it wasn't seriously freaky. I sprinted through and ignored the feelings of nausea. Walking briskly across the castle, I couldn't help but look in amazement at the bright glowstone set into the floor. I knew it glowed, of course, but one simply couldn't imagine the wonder of a glowing rock until they saw it in reality.

_Tools and Weapons._ My hand reached out to open the chest labeled so.

"Who are you?"

I jumped so high and spun so fast that I crashed into the floor. Looking down at me like I was a maniac was a beautiful girl with light brown hair that fell past her shoulders like a rushing stream. She wore a lengthy white top over a bright green one, tied around the waist by a worn leather belt. Faded blue jeans hung all the way to her feet, which were covered by brown sneakers. Somehow attached to her back was a chocolate-coloured bow.

She stared at me with her intense blue eyes, waiting for an answer.

"Uhh... My name's um, Alyssa," I stuttered, my cheeks blushing crimson.

Smiling and shaking her head, the girl announced that she was Rynette Song. "People just keep coming," she mused, shaking her head.

"Wait!" I cried, looking at her in shock. "There are others here?"

Rynette nodded, sighing. "We think the first person came three months ago. All of them just appear, and we can't find a connection. Some play minecraft, others don't. You do play Minecraft, don't you?" She queried, and I nodded.

"Hang on," I muttered, "you _'think'_ the first person to come was three months ago?"

"Well yeah. He didn't keep time well, until he died."

At this, I leaped up. "Died!" I exclaimed.

She looked at me like I was an idiot, one eyebrow raised. "You said you play Minecraft. You know the dangers."

At that, I looked towards the slowly sinking sun, through one of the many excessive windows in my house. My stomach clenched at the thought of what would happen come the time it touched the land and fell below the horizon.

Rynette followed my gaze. She motioned towards the line of chests against the wall. "May I look?"

I nodded, still recovering from the shock of imminent danger, and, obviously, being plunged into Minecraft. The loud creak of one of my chests being opened rang in my ears. Rynette was standing on the other side of the chests, digging her hands into one labeled 'Blocks'. She looked around the interior for a bit, then closed it, taking nothing. At the next one, she stopped. "Woah, how'd you get all this?"

Stumbling over, I peered over her shoulder. A weird collection of items were slotted neatly in the chest. It almost looked like the screen when you opened a chest in the game, but this time, there were no white boundaries between items. I had an urge to shake the box, to see whether the items would tumble around, or stay fixed in place.

Rynette elbowed me, and I jumped out of my stupor. She was pointing to two identical items, perfectly square blocks of bright silver. To the bottom right corner of one lay two numbers, seemingly there for no purpose. A six, and four, paced beside each other.

_Sixty four, a full stack._ I silently cursed my stupidity. Sixty four iron blocks, and another ten. No wonder Rynette was stumped.

"Uh... I found an Iron Golem farm ages ago..." I muttered, drifting off. I thought of the friends I'd met, through the internet and reality. Nostalgia plunged into my heart, at I sighed. Rynette looked at me, and perceiving my sadness, smiled.

"You're missing home already girl? Look around you! You're in a world of adventure, anything could happen! You've been given a chance that many people would kill for! Don't cry because something isn't, smile because something is."

Her happiness was contagious, I found myself grinning alongside her. We rifled through the rest of my stuff, and I ended up with my old sword - Diamond, Fire aspect and Sharpness I -, my power II bow, a heap of arrows, and an unbreaking diamond pick. Rynette had filled a bag of all the things she deemed precious; my many potions, the irons and other ores, most my food.

She announced she was going towards 'the base'. Apparently, the people here had gathered together in one spot. She trotted off, and I raced after her.


	2. A New Stranger

**I'm so sorry for the long wait guys. A massive amount of stories are constantly appearing in my mind,** **that and end of year pressure from teachers, well I mightn't be able to publish some of these stories as quickly as others. Currently I'm just writing whatever I feel like, and seeing some of these stories are completely made up, it's harder to get plot ideas.**

"Wow."

Staring up at the massive structure, a tower of purple stone, reaching to the heavens, I could find only that single word to describe it. It was without windows, entrances, or any imperfection whatsoever. It was a leafless tree, an End Pillar, only hundreds of times bigger. It took up an entire plot, one of the huge squares of land that made up the Town. Beside me, Rynette stood, grinning in pride.

She walked forward, and tapped on the bottom of the wall. Nothing happened, but she seemed to sense something more. "Rynette Song here, open up!"

The sound of moving pistons caught my ears, and two pieces of yellowish sandstone that ringed the tower moved, forming a tunnel. She led me inside, and the 'doors' shut behind us.

It was completely black. "Rynette?" I called, nervous. Suddenly a light turned on above me, reddish-brown.

The Redstone lamp did little to comfort me. The room I was in was barely lit by the dim light. Suddenly there was breathing near me. I readied my sword, hoping I wasn't surrounded by-

"Boo!" Screaming, I swirled around and nearly slashed apart a hysterical Rynette. She parried me, then proved that people really did 'roll on the floor laughing'. Scowling, I watched the rest of the room light up.

The interior was mostly made of jumbled bits of wood; pale birch, dull oak, chocolaty pine and ugly jungle forming a pattern less floor and ceiling. Staircases led up and down, ringing the edges of the room. Shadowy people moved around, taking no notice of us, moving between levels, none stopping here.

"C'mon," muttered a finally-recovered Rynette, and she led me towards a staircase, cut wood that pressed against the wall, as wide as I was tall and lined with a railing of what I took to be fences. The levels we went up seemed endless, each one crowded with people, each one with a wall and single door cutting off the rest of the tower. As we went upwards, Rynette explained to me that the tower housed and protected near half a thousand people, which was almost all of those who had somehow gotten into this world.

When I expressed my puzzlement that five hundred people going missing hadn't been noticed, Rynette explained how with near seven billion people in Earth, there were nearly seven hundred thousand 'thousands' of people. Long story with a lot of numbers short, the entire population of this world was barely a one millionth, four hundred thousandth of the Earth's population.

As she said this and gradually made me feel remarkably insignificant, we slowly neared the top level. At last, instead of continuous stairs, we reached a level barred by an iron door.

_The Alliance of Empire Minecraft_

So stated the sign attached to the wall. Rynette, as she had with the rest of the base, didn't let me observe my surroundings, simply pressing a button next to the door and pulling my arm through.

(O}====§‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹› ‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›§===={O)

Light dazzled my eyes as I was seated down in a chair. When finally my eyes adjusted, I had to blink a few times. Before me was a figure that seemed to blend perfectly with the wall behind her. It took me a while to realise that a dark cloth was wrapped around the person's head, disguising them utterly.

"Name?"

The feminine voice made me jump, and I looked up as I stuttered "A-Alyssa."

"Full name." Her voice was harsh, demanding, and something told me I didn't want to be enemies with this woman.

"Alyssa Ellsworth." The rustling of papers came from behind me, and I watched Rynette flick through a large book and scratch something down, feather twirling between her fingers.

"How'd you get here?" I looked at her, stumped.

"No idea," I replied.

She stared hard at me, or at least I think she did, I could barely see her eyes. "What did you experience when coming here?"

So I told her about the stranger, and his white eyes. I'd heard about Herobrine, I had a friend who was obsessed with him, but I'd never really cared about the story. I decided that one massive creepy supernatural thing a day was good enough for me, and forgot about it.

She asked me a few more questions, such as whether I recognised where I'd woken up in, whether I'd noticed anyone familiar in the base, and so on. It was only the last question that I had to think.

"What are you good at?" I looked at her blankly, wondering whether stuttering or chickening out counted.

"Uh... nothing."

She looked at me, and I had no idea what her expression was like, but for a moment I thought I saw a hint of understanding in her eyes, however that worked. "I mean, in Minecraft."

"Archery," I answered, almost immediately, and she nodded, instructing Rynette to take me to a dorm.

(O}====§‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹› ‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›§===={O)

A few floors lower, Rynette lead me through crowds of people to a row of beds. Most were rather messily made, with bags and pictures and stuff lining the walls and around the beds. One, though, was bare, and this was the one Rynette lead me to.

"It's sunset now, breakfast is between 6 and 7, there is a clock by your bed." Then she turned to leave, as though we'd never talked.

"Wait? Who was that woman?"

She didn't turn, simply murmured "Aeahn Macula, leader of The Alliance of Empire Minecraft." And she was gone, before I could even begin to ask why she was dressed like that.

Desolate, I turned to the side of my bed, where a chest lay. It's hinges were oiled- no creak came as I opened it to reveal it's empty interior. Sighing, I closed it, suddenly seeing the gleaming gold clock, held up my a frame attached to the wall. The sun and moon were both showing, on either side of the dial. Exhausted, I flopped down onto the bed and willed sleep to come.

**So, I basically said it all on the top AN, again, sorry guys, I finish school in 9 days, then I'm going to Queensland for a few... So I might begin writing a lot more during the holidays.**


End file.
